Boss Pleased With Summer Recruitment

2 September 2016

Steve Davis says he will need a touch of good fortune with injuries after the transfer window closed on Wednesday evening. Crewe Alexandra’s only bit of business on deadline day saw the Everton youngster James Yates come in to fill the left-back spot for Alex Morris’ U-23 Development Squad.

The Alex boss admits that he would have liked to have added two more fresh faces to bolster his squad options - but he is reasonably pleased with his summer business.

Experienced strikers Ryan Lowe and Chris Dagnall have arrived to add a goal threat and the boss was able to conclude a short-term deal for the experienced Danny Hollands earlier this month. Liam Smith, 20, arrived on loan from Newcastle and winger Alex Kiwomya has signed until January on loan from Chelsea.

The boss also retained the services of Zoumana Bakayogo at left-back after an impressive second half of the season for us.

Davis told the club’s official web-site: “The move for James came late and we had an opportunity to bring one in to fill a hole in the U-23s. We don’t have too many full-backs coming through and he was one we identified to fill that gap.

“He will play for the Under-23s but he has a good a chance of anyone as progressing into the first team if he plays well enough. If he is the stand-out player every week for the Development Squad then there is no reason why we can’t use him for the first team. His first step will be to play U-23 football.

“I would have liked possibly two more but the budget isn’t going to stretch to that, so we will have to move players around if necessarily. That is why it is important that we have versatility in the squad and we have players here who can play more than one position.

“With the new rules coming in about loans, you just have to keep your fingers crossed that you don’t have a lot of injuries. You don’t know what will happen and I just hope we will be okay.

“Last season we had eight or nine injuries at one point and some of them were out for months, so you just have to hope that we don’t get something like that again.

The boss added: “Most of our business was done in the closed season. We got the two forwards in, who have been fantastic for us. The midfielder eluded us for a bit but we managed to get Danny (Hollands) in until January, so we’ll see how he does and re-assess that closer to the time.

“We have been able to get a couple of younger players in on loan and we all knew what Zoumana could offer us, so we were pleased to have signed him up when we did.”